@MYOS1634 Thank you for your point of view!! My husband and I are in a position where we can afford $69,000/year but giving 1/4 of our annual income to a school would be a hard pill to swallow and I’m wondering at what level income can anyone feel comfortable with paying a quarter of a million dollars on one child’s undergraduate education. I find the amenities at the state school are equal (if not better in some cases) to the amenities at the Ives. When we went for a tour through the Rutgers campus, one of the gyms offered free massages!! I agree with you about the negative affects of “changing my mind and pulling the rug from under them.” However, my daughter was a perfect student until her senior year (in last 12 years, we have never seen less than an A from her in any subject ever), but this marking period, she received 3 B’s. I’m a little afraid that this downward trend might continue in college. We still have yet to hear from many colleges and I pray it will be a clear cut decision where to go once all the acceptances and rejections are in. She is my first of five and I have learned much through this process. I have a feeling it will be different going forward after this one.
@momoffive , if your username is accurate and this is your oldest child, you have to think about paying for all your kiddos down the road to attend college. I know one well off family of five who sent their first four kids full pay to Tulane, Tulane, Cornell and SMU. By the last one the $$ was gone and he went to the local state directional and lived at home. Nothing necessarily wrong with the school he went to, but he knew he had to go there because it was cheap, and he resented it.
^ and that $69,000 will increase every year. First kid will be $300,000. Times 5 kids, all plus inflation. You’re probably looking at $2 million–after tax–to send all 5 kids. Think about that.
Unless she gets merit at a private, save the money.
@momoffive: Tell your daughter right away, if you haven’t yet, what range budget is doable for you. If the college comes back with a net price in that range, you’re good, but if it’s not, she knows the college has to come off the table. Did you run the NPC’s before your child applied to all these schools?
Sometimes, the best deal isn’t the cheapest, it’s the best value - as long as it’s affordable.
Most American families have to spend 30% of their income on college, and sometimes more.
@vistajay: yikes. That’s unfair indeed, and all on the parents. 
(Well, the kid could have tried to get merit, but not everyone is a CC genius who thinks 3.6 is a low GPA and wonders if s/he should retake a 1430 SAT.)
@vistajay @Chardo @Zinhead @MYOS1634 Thank you for the good advice!!! I did tell her we were willing to spend $35/year on a school. However, if she wanted to go to a school higher than that, she would have to take out a loan. I really don’t want her to start off her life in debt when our state schools she was already accepted to (with some merit money), TCNJ and Rutgers, are wonderful.
Ding ding ding, I think we have a winner here.
I knew someone who got a pretty good scholarship there for being a top music student, but that was from a special program.
There is this full tuition scholarship for URMs. https://provost.wisc.edu/csp.htm
@momoffive So you’re telling her she will have to borrow over $120,000 total. She can’t even borrow that much without parents cosigning. Are you prepared for that?
UW-Madison has a few full-ride/tuition scholarships if you fall in to some certain groups.
This one for spoken word/hip hop artists use to be full-ride/tuition but they don’t mention how much it covers any more:
https://omai.wisc.edu/first-wave-scholarship.htm
@Chardo Yes, I am aware we would have to cosign, but hopefully she will be smart and pick one of the four schools she was accepted to whose tuition/room and board are $35K or less (with the merit money she’ll receive).
Penn is awesome, but Wisconsin is pretty sweet too. In many ways, Wisconsin is as good, if not better. For example, for aspiring engineers and computer scientists, Wisconsin is at least as good as Penn. To many, Madison is a more ideal setting for a college campus than West Philadelphia. Penn is a stronger university than Wisconsin over all, but is it $150,000-$200,000 better? Unless one comes from a wealthy family, the answer is no.
@momoffive Glad you get it, but “hopefully she will be smart” isn’t good enough. Don’t hope. Make sure she knows full well all the ramifications of her choices. Most kids don’t understand or comprehend what six figures of debt really means. Seems like you do. Make sure she does.
Then don’t cosign loans for her.
Does she understand that she would actually pay much more than $120,000, with the interest payments…even low student-loan interest? Make the scenario very concrete to her (as concrete as possible)…what $120,000 in loans really means…what her likely monthly payments would be if she took 10, 15, 20 or more years to pay it back. Break down what her after-tax monthly income might be on a modest salary (whatever a realistic entry-level salary in her field of interest might be…IF she is so lucky to find a job right after graduating) and show her what the budget for housing, food, insurance, transportation, clothing, etc might after subtracting the loan payment. Compare that budget with actual housing costs, etc. Remind her that this bare-bones budget doesn’t take into consideration any extras such as vacations, recreation, emergency costs, savings, let alone going to grad school, buying a house, rearing any future children.
I really didn’t have a clue about the nightmare grip of loan payments (though I should have) when I took out loans for my masters program, even though I was older at the time and had every reason to know better. And my loan was nowhere near $120,000. I was shocked at how the payments cut into my modest salary (Alas, I was not in a highly paid profession. Maybe she will be. She would have to be with the bondage of $120,000 of loans chasing her for an undergraduate education.) Just say no!
@alexandre “In many ways, Wisconsin is as good, if not better. For example, for aspiring engineers and computer scientists, Wisconsin is at least as good as Penn.”
In computer science there is no comparison. Penn CS is very rigorous, and if you can do it, the salaries are significantly higher. In 2015, Wisconsin reported avg. CS salaries of $66,000 while Penn reported $97,700. That is nearly a 50% difference in salaries. There is also a significant difference in engineering as a whole, but it does vary by major.
Much2learn, salary reports should be taken in context. Most Wisconsin graduates will find jobs in Chicago while Most Penn graduates will likely end up in NYC. NYC is significantly more expensive than Chicago, and the salaries will reflect that cost of living gap. One must also consider the difference in the strength of their respective student bodies. The average Wisconsin student is not going to be as strong, and do as well as the average Penn student, not in the classroom, and not when looking for entry-level jobs.
That being said, CS at Penn will not be more rigorous than CS at Wisconsin. They both have top notch departments, cutting edge research and world class faculties. Their CS curricula and rigor will likely be similar. There is no way that Penn CS majors are more in demand than Wisconsin CS majors of equal calibre. I trust Penn’s source mind you. Michigan CS majors’ starting salaries for the class of 2015 was $92,000, so Penn’s $98,000 figure sounds about right (again, factoring in cost of living differences). Wisconsin did not include CS major starting salaries, in their report, but Computer Engineering majors at Wisconsin reported average starting salaries of $78,000. CS majors’ starting salaries are typically 10% higher, so I would estimate that Wisconsin CS majors starting salaries are in the $85,000 range. When you factor in cost of living differences, Wisconsin catches up to Penn nicely.